The City Government of Sorsogon, through the initiative of Sorsogon City Mayor Sally A. Lee, City Council, and City Planning Development Office (CPDO) Chief Orlando F. Huenda, requested the conduct of Geographic Information System (GIS) training using QGIS software. The training was held at the Sorsogon City Hall function room located at Diversion Road, Brgy.Cabid-an, Sorsogon City on 16-20 January 2017.

The participants were from its different offices, namely: CPDO, Assessor’s Office, City Environment and Natural Resources, City Veterinary Office, City Agricultural Services, City Zoning Administrator’s Office, Engineering Office, City Social Welfare and Development Office, Public Safety Office, City Health Office, and the Provincial/City Disaster and Risk Reduction Office.

The resource speaker discussing the overview of the training (seating in front/near the projector) -- JEFF N. HUNT

The personnel from NAMRIA Geomatics Training Center (NGTC) spearheaded the conduct of the training. Mr. Aljerico A. Alcala acted as the resource person with the assistance of Mr. Marco Arkiel C. Ilagan and this writer. The participants were taught on Map Basics, GIS overview, Introduction to GIS, Data Management, and Map lay-outing.

The NGTC, a unit of the Geospatial Information Services Division under the Geospatial Information Systems Management Branch is the training arm of NAMRIA when it comes to geospatial information. It is an accredited training center of the Philippine Civil Service Commission, composed of a pool of competent trainers and facilitators with a conducive to learning training facility, and a client-student friendly environment. It offers courses on GIS both in Basic and Advance, GIS for Executives, Global Positioning System, and Basic Hydrography.

Mr. Ilagan (standing) facilitating and assisting the participants in their hands-on exercises

The output of the training, as requested by the good mayor through the memorandum of agreement entered into and signed by both NAMRIA and the City Government of Sorsogon, will benefit the operation of the city government, to name a few, in terms of planning, tax-mapping, real property assessment and zonal valuations.

NAMRIA produces topographic maps that are used as base maps for other thematic maps like land cover, land condition, land
classification, cadastral, etc. In addition, we have digital data of road maps available. This data comes from the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH).